Ha. Certified Genius. My mom told me so. Just saying that it's very competitive and at least on paper, he's behind already.
Also, where you got the 3.3 matters a lot. 3.3 at an Ivy is like 4.3/5.3 at other schools. I noticed that this fact is often overlooked by human resources at financial firms. Only an Ivy guy/gal knows this fact comme moi. Ivy is creme de la creme. Competition is ferocious.
It's also dependent on competition in your local area (NYC is FIERCE I can imagine) but where I come from, I got into Interviews with CIBC World Markets, TD and Goldman up to second round. I couldn't make it past second because I didn't know much finance itself (they were mostly I banking interviews). As for trading itself, I've never heard of anyone making it directly into a trader. I'm still applying, none of the big firms in Canada have hiring right now so my summer will be pretty quiet in terms of interviews.
you can look at some of these videos and the price is right, you in Toronto Babu, you could hit 100 bankers up there swinging a dead cat. Times are tough but I would think you could get something going, Lawrence Chan who posts on the ET thread every now and again is from up there. You should look him up, he probably knows everybody up there. http://www.youtube.com/user/bionicturtledotcom?feature=watch
Kingyppo- I'm West. Oil. Stampede city... I tried the CFA. After having done some pretty nasty abstract math, I tried for a CFA. My classmate in my math finance class who was pretty much a friggin genius walked out after the first half on Level 1. It was hilarious. All the biz school students were just staring at him as he walked out from that giant hall... I prodded on for the sake of it till second half was over. $1000 wasted. Dad wasn't happy. As hard as we tried, we couldn't get ourselves to go through it. Coffee didn't help. Neither did redbull. I've given up on CFA. Lawrence Chan... hmm... is that his website? You from Canada too?
The thing is when you are younger you are inexperienced so this is how people disqualify you. I think alot of our schooling is backwards that way. Nowadays you need a college degree to get an interview. With the credit crisis and recession it gives the companies an excuse to hire folks as slave labor. Trading is highly sought after because there are lots of high paying jobs. I think you are better off starting a small business. I wasn't suggesting getting a CFA, being from Chicago, there are alot of successful traders, it used to be where if you had a knack for trading it didn't really matter if you were pedigreed, now though with computers they seem to be looking for quant types that are highly educated. The prop route offers a way to at least get your feet wet and see if it is for you. I mean based on the discussion here it seems like if you aren't at the top of your class you can't get a job in ibanking. Seems like prop is the only way to get in these days.